Hirokazu Kore-Eda Thread

No thread, to my surprise. Only a handful of films released in the states. I haven't seen Maborosi in years but I just rented the newly released Criterion version of Still Waiting, an expert family psychodrama.

This guy is amazing. Still Walking is superb, but it's Nobody Knows that gets my vote.

(After Life reminds me of Wings of Desire, a little).

i like this guy & have somehow only ever seen after life. i have maborosi - which gets a lot of ILX love elsewhere i think - &'ll get around to watching it v soon. he's made quite a lot in the last couple of years, inc. a film about a love doll that's apparently v sensitive & considered, as well as his new kids movie.

i've always wanted to find claire denis' appreciation, written in cahiers du cinema, about the guy.

maybe, if there were a kore-eda film that none of us had seen but which we could obtain, we could have ILX film club & synchro-screen before discussing

have only seen still walking & liked it; also have maborosi waiting to be watched

Nobody Knows is streaming on netflix, and Hana is available for rental by mail on Netflix and Greencine. I'm really happy to watch either of them – and I'd love a chance to see the former again, and to discuss it here.

i'd love to do this; i think i was maybe casting around in the direction of one of the others, because i think i'll find nobody knows moving enough to bawl through, but let's go for it, or first see where everyone else is at in terms of a consensus kore-eda blank spot. online film club, it's exciting.

I haven't seen Nobody Knows!

high five

is it amateurist who really loves maborosi? i think i looked up mentions of kore-eda (plagued by the variable use of his hyphen) a while back & there was an ilxor who called it their favourite film.

so anyway let's do this?, some night in the next week or two, depending on who can get a copy & how soon?

'maborosi' is terrific, though different from the later films (very indebted to ozu, formally) - but i found the final shot so breathtaking i rewound the shitty VHS i was watching it on just to play it again

free on netflix streaming, so anybody w/ that access... Maybe we should set up a group chat for afterward? Later this week would be great for my schedule.

i haven't seen 'still walking', loved 'after life', liked 'nobody knows'

he mostly made short documentaries before 'maborosi' right?

ys

He's closer to Renoir than Ozu: the camera placement is less precise, more interested in capturing how the groups of five and six interact with the house and staircase instead of twos and three with each other.

Also the unrepentant grumpy old doctor in Still Waiting would look out of place in an Ozu film.

His cinematographic formalism is less ... formal than Ozu's? Looser? Like you say, he's interested in capturing the tonal nuances of a conversation, especially if it involves more than a pair of actors, but he's also more aware of a traditional narrative thread than Ozu ever was. The comparison isn't inaccurate, though: he's very aware of bodies-in-rooms, and shoots in such a way that space and distance themselves becomes very present.

Still Walking is one of the best family dramas of the last few years, and that's saying alot (think I only liked Summer Hours more). It definitely felt more formal than Nobody Knows, which is better served by the cramped intimacy of the camerawork. Love em both.

not much to add but I'll echo the Still Walking love.

(After Life reminds me of Wings of Desire, a little).

― turning in the widening gyre (remy bean), Sunday, 14 August 2011 23:43 (2 days ago)

Good point of comparison. Wings goes in for reverie and manages that quite nicely, but After Life has a really nice no-new-age-bullshit approach (a trap that would be easy to fall into, premise-wise). It's a wonderfully understated movie - underrated? (Wings was a formative movie for me - don't think I'd be as enraptured now, but a lot of moments have stuck - I'm not prepared to take it off it's pedestal yet.)

Very good to mention Summer Hours too, which I thought of instantly and is my favorite movie of the last three years.

Wasn't that a good film? I'm still unsure of the ending, but I think it's my own baggage more than any fault of Assayas.

I can't think of another movie whose lightness of texture and quickness of pace is so profound.

the palette was gorgeous too –– lush greens, peeling-paint furniture, binoche's salmon-pink hoody

Looking for Maburosi on youtube - no luck.

Everything else is really (quietly, devastatingly) good.

diff.spelling maybe? i've seen it as mabarosi and mabaroshi

it is my favourite film ever (also i think youtube would not be kind to some of its darker shots: i saw it first on video, reviewing it for S&S, and very nearly raved abt the fact that he shot several scenes without ANY LIGHT AT ALL) (not in fact true; luckily i caught a proper screening of it before delivering the copy)

Got it - thanks! - Mabaroshi no Hiraki! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53Uj_V0T7s8&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLCDBF2F13AAB7B091

Starts off w/a dark shot you speak of?

Anyway, er, would be good to catch this at a re-screening someday but I can't exactly wait.

And this is the guy that wrote the novel based on the film

http://www.bookslut.com/fiction/2006_03_008097.php

Don't think its been translated.

anyone seen 'i wish' ? looks sorta dubious 2 me but it's now showing @ the art space nearby..

haven't seen, would really like to; i hear it's v satisfying (though blah blah minor koreeda blah blah)
i still haven't gotten around to marborosi, which iirc some of us were swearing blood oaths to syncro-screen & report back on a while ago

'maborosi' is really beautiful - donna rouge otm here

- but i found the final shot so breathtaking i rewound the shitty VHS i was watching it on just to play it again

― clams cassingle (donna rouge), Monday, August 15, 2011 6:06 PM (10 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea im not so enthused abt kids as the main characters but i suspect anything he makes is good/worthwhile

also @ some pt i will go take 'after life' out of the library

What's dubious about I wish?!?! Looks great, can't wait to see it.

Anyone else?

on US netflix

he made a tv series!

http://www.yam-mag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/going-my-home-jdrama-koreeda.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_me2zl7Ajot1qeezxio1_500.png

going my home

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41nIhOJU-RL._SX215_.jpg

I spent like 15 minutes trying to write something about this film that didn't sound dumb, so I will just say this: I liked it.

Didn't have high expectations, but After the Storm is easily the best he has made since Still Walking, and sort of a return to the indie look of his early stuff. Some really great images made by basically doing everything a lot quicker, it seems. Hiroshi Abe is an amazing casting since, well, he is too tall for every frame and all his co-stars, and it gives the whole film this sort of off-kilter feel. Highly recommended.

I loved ATS too, and it's a close cousin to Still Walking in tone. Really loved it, actually.
Bumping this thread because I've ordered the bluray of The Third Murder, a feature of his from 2017 that I haven't seen yet.
Strong recommend for Going My Home too - maybe I like Hiroshi Abe as much as I like Koreeda? No, because I love Kirin Kiki even more.

The Third Murder is quite interesting. Not sure I've wrapped my head around it, so looking forward to hearing what you think.

I found The Third Murder a disappointment in its last hour. I don't think it's up to the ambiguities in Kore-eda's script. But it's worth a watch.

Shoplifters is soooosososo good

Hosono smanged the soundtrack

yep

it's brilliant yes, v much a crying in cinema film

i didn’t find it sad actually! kind of had a happy ending imo?

ambiguous ending. but the last bit with the 'father' and the 'son' i mean

i loved that it was a movie about poor people but not about /poverty/. no hamfisted attempt at structural critique, no sad-but-hopeful swelling string score, no triumphing over adversity. it was like, actually humanizing. the state as represented by the social workers was also somewhat sympathetic and nuanced, in the interview scenes

he's been so damn prolific in the last five years that you should watch'em all, even The Third Murder.

Air Doll is...not great tho

i loved that it was a movie about poor people but not about /poverty/. no hamfisted attempt at structural critique, no sad-but-hopeful swelling string score, no triumphing over adversity. it was like, actually humanizing. the state as represented by the social workers was also somewhat sympathetic and nuanced, in the interview scenes

― flopson, Friday, 28 December 2018 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

You should see Nobody Knows next. Its the one film of his Shoplifters builds on.

haven't seen Shoplifters yet, but my favorite Kore-eda film so far is Nobody Knows

thx!

i saw Maborosi (his first non-documentary) on 35mm at the rep cinema earlier this week. i could have easily watched a week-long version of it

That's top 2/3 from him. Should be re-issued.

the reel(?) was pretty damaged

some of the long sustained shots in it are still burned in my brain. two in particular i can't stop thinking about
- pitch dark room, light very slowly enters, after maybe a minute you can make out a white comforter, eventually someone opens a window
- funeral procession along a beach with the light above the horizon just above their heads

one of the most threadbare plots (young mother's grandmother disappears, then partner commits suicide, then she moves to the countryside with new lover and raises her children with him, then they just kind of... live a normal life?) i've ever seen in a slow arty film but i didn't even want anything to happen, was how beautiful and perfect it was

A number of people in the Lincoln Center audience couldn't follow the plot of Shoplifters at all. Stupidity rather than age, I think.

It was fine, liked some of the other recent stuff more.

I think it's a masterpiece.

the discourse!

Kirin Kiki, Sakura Ando and Mayu Matsuoko were great in Shoplifters. also the two kids

I loved the casual but deep immersion into everyday life in so many of the scenes, it feels like it’s a filmmaking quality that Kore-eda is really is good at

BFI Southbank season starts tomorrow

Yeah can't wait to see Maburosi on the big screen. Gonna catch some of the early ones too.

excited about seeing maborosi for the first time at the phoenix on sunday. was annoyed that i missed our little sister when it was on the iplayer

just got sent the BFI boxed set (= mabarosi, after life, nobody knows, still walking): quid pro quo for them reproducing my 1996 s&s review of mabarosi in the booklet

so this is something nice to look forward to -- mabarosi is one of my favourite ever films but i haven't ever seen nobody knows or still walking

orthography note: bfi now goes with koreeda not kore-eda

Wow, two absolute crackers in waiting for you then! Still Walking deserves its reputation but it’s Storm that kills me. As for Nobody Knows - I’ve never seen anything like it and hope I don’t again, despite loving it.

Finally saw this, iirc my first Kore-eda since "After Life" (which was, jeez, 20 years ago ?!). I absolutely loved the direction and acting, but the movie/story I thought was only OK. Some surprising parallels to "Parasite," which I also finally just saw (but liked more).

He's got an English-language one with Catherine Deneuve making the rounds.

Just watched Air Doll, and I truly hope it's the worst film he ever makes because I wouldn't like to think he'll direct anything else as poor as this. Haven't read the manga it's based on so maybe the tonal oddness worked better on the page, but it takes itself far too seriously for what is essentially a ludicrous premise (latex sex doll becomes sentient and seeks life's meaning in modern-day Tokyo). Might have worked as a black comedy-horror I guess, and there were a handful of scenes that were pretty compelling, but when you find yourself praying for a film to end you know you're in trouble. Korean actor Bae Doona (she was the archery-expert sister in Bong Joon-Ho's The Host) does a great job in the title role, and the cinematography is beautiful, but the whole thing is scuppered by the shitty script so what's the point?

I think it's his worst, yeah.

Gee, I see I've missed a lot. Nobody Knows and Still Walking seemed like possibly the best things ever at the time, but Air Doll and I Wish...didn't. Then I fell out of the loop altogether film-wise and now there's a full 6 (?) consecutive HK features I know little about?

Guess I should I scroll up for views on those innit...

Things turned around after I Wish. Like Father, Like Son and Sisters are still pretty feel good, but much better. After the Storm is just great, my favorite HK film probably since the earliest ones. And Shoplifters won the Golden Palm and is also good, though not quite as good as AtS. Then there's a French one, which got bad reviews

Great! I just made moves to procure AtS and Shoplifters, for starters. I should really stumble across from ILM more often!

Watching The Truth tonight.

Haha. I did watch it that night, my last new film before quarantine. I watched it again this morning. A real departure: Kore-eda imitating Assayas. Familiar but also rather charming, and Deneuve is superb playing an incarnation of herself.

Good Binoche interview: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/on-mothers-daughters-and-the-truth-a-conversation-with-juliette-binoche/

Ethan Hawke, muffled 'yikes'

the truth was remarkably french

otm

as a film about children I enjoyed "I Wish". It was not as great as Nobody Knows though

Monster is middling Kore-eda, i.e. better than most directors' peaks, but does get bogged down a little in plot contrivances and melodrama. The script plays around with the viewers' sympathy towards various characters to an alarming degree. Stars Sakura Ando from Shoplifters who's even better in this film, one of the most watchable performers around.

Saddest moment was in the final credits when I realised the score was by Ryuichi Sakamoto, in fact his final piece of film work.

4/5

Yes the Sakamoto moment was a sickener. I ended up loving this, but would have happily watched a film just from the two kids' perspective.

Yeah, the final part is so good it made the first two parts annoy me.

The thread has skipped Broker, which is pretty wonderful and teams HK once again with Bae Doona of Air Doll, could not be a more different role for her!
I’m looking forward to Monster because it’s a Korēda film, how could I not.
My all-time will forever be After the Storm.

I'd be interested to know how people interpreted the ending of Monster.

seems like the kids drowned and are in heaven or whatever?

I took the ending at face value. Great film regardless, wish it got more attention at the end of the year.

One of last year's best.

It’s hard to escape Yellow Kid’s conclusion because the two stories don’t really line up in terms of the.. er.. diegesis. I prefer to think that’s not what “really happens” but I kinda think it is.

I never considered that possibility, but thinking it over now it does seem a viable interpretation. But I don’t think we’re required to see it that way, unless there is some clue that I missed.

There’s a lot of talk about rebirth. Crawling through the under-wreckage and emerging in the sunlight is almost literally a rebirth. And then they run through the tall grass, to where usually there’s a fence and they can’t go any farther. The younger kid said “end of the line”. They can see tracks beyond. But at the end of the movie there’s no fence. They can keep going.

It is incredibly grim and I don’t like to think about it too much :/

Kore-eda said after the film’s Cannes premiere that the cast and crew opted for the positive reading of events, but he conceded that the tragic interpretation was equally valid.

That’s an interesting point about the fence. I think the end is not supposed to be entirely realistic, but you could read the symbolism in different ways. I think it symbolizes joy but leaves open the question of whether that joy can be achieved in this world.

Just watched Monster last night, thought it was terrific. My wife and I split on the ending — she interpreted it sadly, me more optimistically. But I guess I’d say the sad end still represents liberation of a sort. They’re still together either way.

hi i am not a movie person. since becoming housed again i am trying to engage in semi-normal person activities. there is an independent movie house nearby that is showing a monday matinee of _after life_ in a week's time. i have already purchased my ticket.

the problem is: i'm not a movie person. for a lot of reasons, but one of them is because fear of public violence in a dark theater. i know i could easily stream the film. why should i put myself through this?

here's the funny part: i've already seen it. it's also kinda one of the reasons i'm not a movie person: my schizoaffected brain sees stuff like that and interacts with it in very engaging, but ultimately, unhealthy ways. case in point: the last time i watched _after life_ (also the first, to be clear) i thought i myself had died and so on and... yeah. fun stuff when you're untreated. that was about 20 years ago. idk how long that episode lasted, but anyway.

oh yeah, i'll be totally on foot the whole way too.

so join me, as i immerse myself in fully independent exposure therapy.

i still have a week to chicken out. i will check in here beforehand, and attempt a proper review should plans go ahead.

thoughts on my initial viewing:
minus the weeks of ups and downs and delusions that followed, i remember really liking it. it was obviously fairly evocative for me and brought up a lot of challenging ideas. so i'm holding onto that for a good attitude going in. fingers crossed.

oh shoot, relevant factoid: last trip to movie theater was jurassic world 3d a decade ago last month. before that, it was dark knight.

i am very afraid of movie theaters.

I would say the overwhelming quality of Korēda as a filmmaker is compassion. After Life (aka Wonderful Life) is a film defined by compassion. I hope that gives you a good environment to enjoy the cinema again.

film was even better than i remembered. it's been nearly a day and i still have the image of takashi's memory flashing intermittently in my mind.

i was prepared for tears. the theater was small, and probably less than quarter of its capacity. the only part where i couldn't contain it any longer was the second occurrence of shiori fully submerging herself in the bath. it's funny though: it only became uncontainable because i knew how the film ends.

it gave me a lot to think about, all over again. except this time, i have a lot of positivity to reflect on. one sad thing that happened between my previous dispatch here and my viewing -and which 100% impacted me going into it- is the passing of stirmonster. i've said before, i only knew him through his posts here, and then made the connection to his irl moves. but still, i was sat there in theather, watching all those folks in the film march towards their ceremonies to the ramshackle marching music played by the staff... giggling slightly, thinking "wonder what someone like stirmonster would do in this situation?"

anyway, it was fun. the theater is cool. i may go back if they start showing old kubricks again.

also mattt, thank you for that post. i was having quite a bit of apprehension and regretting my choice. your post was complimentary to a "well hold on, maybe we should stick this out" kinda moment. i am 100% glad i went.